MRMC is among Top 10% in the Nation for Joint Replacement Surgery

(Mission, TX) (November 20, 2010) – For the third year in a row Mission Regional Medical Center has
been nationally recognized for its clinical excellence and ranked among
the top 10% of hospital in the nation for
Joint Replacement Surgery.

Every year,
HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent ratings organization, evaluates
patient outcomes for 5,000 hospitals. This research is the only comprehensive
analysis based solely on patient mortality and complication rates.

The public is demanding increased public reporting of quality measures,
and recent government reform efforts support this call to action. According to the
Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 40% of adults report that they believe there are major differences
in hospital quality in their immediate geography. Additionally, since
1996, the number of consumers that indicated they would choose a hospital
based on a high quality rating over familiarity has increased to 72% from 59%.

With the national quality recognition, Mission Regional Medical Center
is a proud recipient of HealthGrades 2011 Joint Replacement Excellence
Award™. The hospital also sustained its top rating – 5-stars
– for overall joint replacement surgery for the third consecutive year.

“I am extremely proud of the physicians and staff at our hospital,”
said Javier Iruegas, CEO of Mission Regional Medical Center. “The
ratings and recognition we have received in the last three years demonstrate
that we continue to provide patients with the highest quality orthopedic
care in a patient-focused environment.”

“It is an honor to receive these ratings from a nationally recognized
company, such as HealthGrades,” said
Jose Marina, DO, Orthopedics, “Ratings like these allow consumers to make informed
decisions when choosing a healthcare provider.”

The HealthGrades study, the largest annual report of its kind, analyzed
patient outcomes in nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records
from the years 2007, 2008 and 2009. Among the findings related to in-hospital
complications in this year’s study are:

Across all procedures in which complications were studied, there was an
80% lower chance of experiencing one or more complications in a 5-star
rated hospital compared to a 1-star rated hospital.

Across all procedures studied, there was a 63% lower chance of experiencing
one or more in-hospital complications in a 5-star rated hospital compared
to the U.S. hospital average.

If all hospitals performed at the level of a 5-star rated hospital, 185,875
in-hospital complications may have been avoided among Medicare patients
over the three years studied.